What is Canada's National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP)?

The National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) is a collaborative program of the government of Canada, the provincial/territorial governments, national and provincial sport federations and the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC). This partnership, in place since 1974, is largely responsible for building an internationally recognized coach education program for coaching development in over 65 different sports in French and English.

The NCCP is designed to meet the needs of all types of coaches, from the first-time coach to the head coach of a national team. The NCCP is the recognized national standard for coach training and certification in Canada. As part of the program, all coaches are trained in ethical decision-making and sport safety.

Since 1997, the emphasis of the NCCP has been on developing competent coaches – an exciting step towards helping them to become more effective and have a more meaningful impact on an athlete’s experience. This most recent NCCP model is made up of three streams and a total of eight contexts, each with its own coaching requirements. Each sport is responsible for identifying how many of the eight contexts are relevant to their sport.